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10-year Treasury yield climbs above 5.3% to a level not seen in 24 years

122 points · 193 comments · kaycebasques

  1. valleyer · · focus · HN ↗
    Oy. I'm no fiscal conservative, but the US federal government absolutely needs to balance its budget. Otherwise, it's bound to either choke on interest payments, devalue the dollar, or both.

    Unlike most Trumpists, I see the the problem as a revenue issue, not expenditures; unlike many non-Trumpists, I doubt "tax the rich" is going to be enough to plug the hole.

    Government healthcare payments would be a good start -- it seems likely that the amount most employees already (effectively) pay for health insurance could fund equivalent government coverage with some money left over to help pay for other government expenses.

    1. consumer451 · · focus · HN ↗
      I am getting way too old for this. No more "both sides." Look at the data. If you want a balanced budget, there is one party to avoid.
      1. valleyer · · focus · HN ↗
        I don't feel like I "both sides"ed it that much, but I guess reasonable minds can disagree. But: neither party has balanced the federal budget, or even made (sane) noises about doing so, since the Democrats in the 90s. I haven't heard much about it from Democrats this election cycle -- perhaps reasonably so since there are much more critical issues at the moment.
        1. y1n0 · · focus · HN ↗
          If you look at the record, republicans out match democrats 3 to 1 for balanced budget years.

          But it doesn’t matter. Those historical parties have nothing in common with their namesake parties today.

          1. valleyer · · focus · HN ↗
            The last Republican to balance the budget was Eisenhower. Yeah, Clinton is pretty old today too, but almost no one alive today was of voting age during the Eisenhower administration.

            So, I agree with your conclusion.

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